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Newby brings free market extremism to NC Supreme Court

Submitted by scharrison on Sat, 09/21/2013 - 09:41

If you're a victim of fraud or other deceptive practices, it must be your own fault:

A critical finding in the majority opinion, written by Justice Paul Newby, was the determination that consumers must show that misrepresentations by the bank were a factor in their decision to enter into the loans, which in legal parlance is known as reliance. That was the legal argument put forth by Community Bank. The bank contended that the consumers took out the second mortgages based on the total package – the fees and the interest rates – and not “because they believed they were receiving discounted loans,” the court noted.

The court also overturned the claim of excessive fees, reasoning that “in most cases, there is nothing unfair or deceptive about freely entering a transaction on the open market.”

This is what happens when you put an ideologue like Newby in such an important position: he disregards precedence and good common sense, and makes a ruling based on his faith in an unproven economic theory. The fairy tale goes like this: if a business or individual continues to operate dishonestly, eventually customers will stop buying their product. Ergo, the government doesn't need to get involved. And there's no such thing as a "victim" in this formula, they are "participants" in a transaction who didn't pay close enough attention or ask the right questions. That's not justice, it's called negligence.

the right-wing nut jobs spent millions to ensure that Newby was re-elected. They expect their money's worth.

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"I will have a priority on building relationships with the minority caucus. I want to put substance behind those campaign speeches." -- Thom Tillis, Nov. 5, 2014

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